5 Internet Security Tips to Share with Your Boss

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It can almost be guaranteed that your company or place of work would absolutely crumble if it lost internet access or suffered a massive data breach. Despite this, many businesses and decision makers aren’t investing nearly enough time and energy into internet security and protecting sensitive data.

You can have a chance to contribute to the company and tell your superiors just what could be done about the matter, the inexpensiveness of doing so, and the consequences if changes aren’t made.

Here are five tips that you will want to tell your boss at the next opportunity:

Set Up a Security Review

Does your company have a regular time where they go over the security of the company as a whole in terms of internet policies? This should be the case of every company, no matter their reliance on technology. Such times are perfect for training employees on new procedures and even if they are tacked onto another standard meeting they are well worth the investment.

The main reason that you need to tell your boss to make this a priority is the quickly changing nature of data security. You can’t afford to wait every year or when the time feels proper when there are new threats coming out every day and thousands of attacks attempted every hour. Such things that should be considered are making sure employees use strong passwords, prohibiting use of personal devices for work use, and keeping shared files away from employees who have no need for them.

Make Sure Employees Have a Virtual Private Network

If you have employees that work while they travel or meet clients regularly in a café or restaurant, you will want to make sure that their devices are equipped with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to ward off hackers and other cybercriminals who might attack them over unprotected networks. What a VPN will do is connect a person’s device to an offsite secure server. This server will mask the IP address of the device in question while using an encrypted “tunnel” of a connection to safely transfer any data that is necessary, allowing clients to see important data should they need it without any risk of interception by a hacker with the right receiver.

Along with the security offered by a VPN there are other benefits you will want to mention such as getting by regional restrictions and government censorship (great for travelling employees). Your company may even benefit from the enhanced privacy it offers. When you are discussing getting one with your boss, you will also want to have one picked out considering the number available, so read some reviews to give your boss some options.

Reconsider the Services and Programs Your Company Uses

Your company already has contracts or agreements with various IT companies to manage their data or their computer setup. This arrangement allows for maximum efficiency on both ends, but have you and your boss considered the security precautions that each of those services take with your data? Do they secure that data as well as they would their own?

Go through each of the different services that your company uses. See if there are security concerns or if there is a bad reputation that has been developed since your company began the business relationship. If there are major concerns, then bring them up with your boss and see what they think. It might be time for a change.

Review the Training of Every Employee

Are you and your boss aware that 95 percent of data breaches are caused by human error? A misplaced flash drive or a password on a sticky note are all that is needed to lead to thousands of leaked files. Perhaps younger employees are well-versed in the basics of internet security, but this might not be always the case. The best solution for this is to ask every individual employee what they know and then train them according to their needs.

Your company should also have an internet security manual available at all times for its employees, and it should also have an open culture of inquiry where it comes to technology in the company. Not everyone has the same experience or expertize when it comes to internet security, so there should be no discouraged questions.

Have Safe and Reliable Backups

At some point something is going to happen to your company’s systems, be they caused by human or nature, that will damage or destroy important company data. There is no safeguard or habit that will prevent this from eventually happening, and you should not let it keep you or your boss up at night.

It is for this reason that you should make sure to ask your boss about data backup options should they not already be in use. They are not nearly as expensive as they were in previous years, and there are numerous options available to companies. For small amounts of data, a flash drive locked away when it is unneeded is the sensible option. Many cloud backup services will automatically back up files when the computers aren’t being used; although they have a reputation for poor data security. For a maximum amount of security for company files, an external hard drive that is backed up and locked away or secure company databases are the best option.

Once you consider some solutions to security risks your company might have, you will be able to look fantastic to the whole company and put yourself in a better position. Thank you for reading.

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